Do you think alien life exists in the Universe? Absolutely. The vast number of stars out there just scream we are not alone. Whether that includes intelligent life or not (and whether we should include ourselves in that category) is another matter. I’m not convinced that we’ve ever been visited by alien life-forms; I can understand the fascination with the idea, but it’s rather unlikely and the majority of sightings or theories just don’t hold up to Occam’s Razor. I doubt that should we ever encounter intelligent life they’ll look even vaguely like us; more than likely they’ll be wildly different, and possibly so different we may not even recognize their presence.

I am convinced that anal probes are a human fascination, and not alien.

If you could travel off Earth, would you? What if it meant you could never come back? Yes, but, as someone who has claustrophobia at times, I don’t think it would be very realistic. The means of travel would have to be very spacious, maybe more of a “Stargate” approach than anything of current technology. Traveling out into space, even for a day or so in our current craft, would kick on anxiety that would be very tough to control. If I couldn’t come back? Um…I’m too fond of Earth. I’d love to see another world, especially one teaming with crazy life, but I’d need to be able to come back. I could adapt to survive if it was my only choice, but I’d rather not.

What inspired your story? I wanted intimate, personal reactions to something other-worldly. I also wanted to draw upon experiences that I know personally, and I kept coming back to claustrophobia. It’s not the subject of the story, but it’s a primary element, touched upon in a couple of ways.

What music or movies helped you to write this piece? I actually don’t remember; I often have TV running when I write, though not always. If it is on, it’s turned down low so I can barely hear it, and I’ll let run whatever is marginally interesting, just not too interesting. I tried not to think of other movies that could inspire my story as it would be too easy to draw upon that. Other times I’ll write in odd places, like running out to lunch and writing on my iPad or iPhone, or in bed.

Musically, well, I distinctly remember listening to some Puscifer and Tool— I just like Maynard’s music that much I guess.

How many rewrites did you do before submitting? Quite a few—I see at least six or seven saved Word files for versions I shared with my early readers; those are distinctly different versions saved out for that purpose, as I do all of my actual writing in Scrivener (and there’s about thirty snapshots there—different instances of saved states). Real rewrites, not just slight editing tweaks, would be at least five. I started three different times before I settled on the tone of the piece.

What is your favorite bit?

“Your brother’s a buzz-kill who doesn’t recognize an opportunity when it craps on his face. This is alien tech, no doubt. And it’s the find of the century. The military will pay millions for this shit. And they can pay us even more to keep us quiet, or we can be famous for the find. Their choice.” Dave grinned at his own thought.

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“The Touch of the Taniwha” by Tracie McBride is a finalist for the 2013 Aurealis Awards, in the category of “Best Fantasy Short Fiction”. The Aurealis Awards are Australia’s premier speculative fiction awards. Fish was edited by Carrie Cuinn and KV Taylor, and published in 2013. You can learn more about the anthology here, and read Tracie’s author […]